Consciousness Slum

Definition

A consciousness slum is a term used to describe a dystopic afterlife condition caused by one existing in an uploaded mental state. For instance, one might be forced into a consciousness slum by a computer malfunction during consciousness suspension.

In reality, there are proposed examples of people trapped in consciousness while in a coma for many years. One example was Rom Houben, a patient trapped in a 23 year coma.[1]

The idea of a consciousness slum comes from a work of science fiction called Postsingular, by Rudy Rucker.[2] It describes -----.

The main character in Philip K. Dick's I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon[3] becomes trapped in a consciousness slum when the ship's hibernation mode malfunctions, leading the protagonist's to be trapped awake in a slumbering body only a few years into a 60 year trip to another planet. In order to save the man's consciousness, the computer decides to entertain him by playing him back memories from his life. The playback mechanisms repeat and corrupt the man's mind, so that when he does finally arrive on the planet after many years, he can no longer differentiate between reality and his own memory.